SENATORIAL SYNAPSES

Governors have come and gone. So
have chief justices, not to mention World Series
appearances by the Philadelphia Phillies.

They are all quicksilver next to
the turnover in the state’s membership in the U.S.
Senate. It has been the sclerosis of Delaware politics.

Republican Bill Roth and Democrat
Joe Biden were there for so long, it seemed as if they
had been senators together since the dress code called
for togas.

From the early 1970s until January
of this year, the only rollover occurred when Democrat
Tom Carper uprooted Roth in 2000. Biden could be there
yet, except that his immovable tenure collided with
irresistible ambition and – presto-change-o! – a
vice president popped out.

Not anymore. After six decades with
only six senators – Williams, Frear, Boggs, Roth, Biden
and Carper – senatorial seating here is about to be
transformed into a political assembly line.

Democrat Ted Kaufman, the appointee
for Biden, has vowed to vacate the premises quicker than
voters can be expected to stop asking, “Does he spell
his last name with one ‘f’ or two?”

It is certain that Kaufman, once
Biden’s longtime chief of staff, will be getting out of
the way so the electorate can choose a senator in 2010.
“As I said when I was appointed, I will not be on the
ballot. The undemocratic process of a gubernatorial
appointment would be compounded if I ran,” Kaufman said.

It is less certain whether Carper
might be getting out of the way when his second term is
up in 2012. At 62, he has been in office for more than
half his life, since he was elected state treasurer in
1976 and went on to be a congressman, governor and
senator.

Carper loves being the senior
senator from Delaware, but lately he has been dropping
little clues that he does not intend to become another
Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina senator who stayed in
office until he was 100.

Carper feels the press of the next
generation of Democratic leadership. The gubernatorial
primary between Jack Markell and John Carney tore him
up, so much so that he tried to broker a ticket that
would have had Carney running for governor and Markell
for lieutenant governor. The most obvious relief valve
for preventing such Democratic fratricide is himself.

“I don’t want to stand in their way
forever,” Carper said. “We’ll see.”

For now, the political parties are
focused on getting their dream candidates for the Senate
race in 2010. It is no secret who they are.

Republicans from D.C. to Delaware
are urging Congressman Mike Castle to run. No less a
figure than John McCain stopped by Castle’s office to
argue the case for the Senate. George Bush the Elder
telephoned.

Castle, who is 69, has climbed the
stairs from state representative to state senator to
lieutenant governor to governor to U.S. representative.
Whatever he does next year, it is no doubt his last
political decision.

“Maybe I’ll run for attorney
general,” Castle quipped.

Not that he needs that post. Castle
already is a non-practicing lawyer.

His more serious possibilities are
running for the Senate, running for the 10th
time for the House of Representatives (in a race that is
enticing John Carney) or retiring. No matter what, the
voters should know his choice shortly.

“I’ve got to make a decision, and I
think I owe it to the Republican Party to make it
relatively soon. In the next month or two, it’s got to
be finalized. I really don’t need to focus on a
political decision right now, but I understand the
nature of the beast,” he said.

“If I run for something, I could
very likely run for the Senate. There is some reasonable
chance I will not be running for the House.”

The Democrats obviously are looking
at Beau Biden, the 40-year-old attorney general, to move
into his father’s old office. While Biden himself is mum
on politics during his yearlong deployment as a National
Guard JAG officer in Iraq, others are not.

Not long ago Carper was in the
Senate cloakroom, where he found Kaufman talking on the
telephone with Beau Biden. Carper jumped on the line to
relay what had happened during a fund-raising trip he
just took to the West Coast for Democratic Senate
candidates.

“I told him, you’ll be pleased to
learn a lot of people are asking if you’re going to run.
He said, what did you tell them? I told him, Ted Kaufman
scheduled 15 fund raisers and established two leadership
PACs, and you’re toast!” Carper cracked.

Both parties are so high on their
own candidate, they are positive the other one will turn
tail. Republicans think Biden will blink. Democrats
think Castle will.

The last time people thought that
way, Markell’s backers thought Carney would blink and
Carney’s thought Markell would.